I�m sure my estimable editors haven�t done this to me deliberately, so I will not be too despondent that my deadline for delivery of this fan column is 27 August, the day I fly to Chicago for this year�s World Science Fiction Convention. Inevitably its publication date is sometime after the convention has concluded.

You have chosen the wrong king / between two kings, the wrong / love, between two loves

There were dozens of black oystercatchers dead and dying on the wet mud. The birds not yet dead beat their long wings weakly against the ground and made faint yelping sounds, ghostlike and plaintive.